Tangles and Snags
by serena957
Summary: fem!Harry. An off day for Raven was what most would consider ground-breaking, but catastrophe was an annual thing. Something was bound to happen eventually. It could have been worse. Yeah, keep telling yourself that.
1. just a bit off: I

Got an idea, felt like following it down the rabbit hole. Review, let me know if it's worth continuing. Yes, Harry's a chick. Set in sixth year, Sirius is alive for reasons that will later be explained should I continue the story, and I like Malfoy so he won't be an insufferable prick in my fic, kay? Later chapters will be longer, this is pretty much the intro. Enjoy.

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Raven was having a bad day.

It had started out alright, really. She had opened her eyes to her dormitory, feeling a sense of relief in her assured existence and dreamless sleep. Gone about her morning routine as usual, making sure that she looked irresistibly gorgeous, tousling her perpetually messy hair, throwing on some jeans and a hoodie. In fact, she'd felt cheerful. It was Saturday. It was her chill day. It was her favorite day of the week, a day that all she had to do was hang out with Ron and Hermione and maybe blow something up if she was in the mood. A day where she had no classes and nothing she had to do, except maybe argue with Hermione that homework really wasn't important enough to mar her chill day.

Cool green eyes absently scanned the common room for signs of life. Raven was willing to wager that everyone was at breakfast – she did have a habit of awakening rather late on Saturdays. But the fact that Ron wasn't out here waiting for her was, admittedly, slightly miffing.

_Doesn't have to wait for me, I'm being dumb, _she mentally chided herself. He was her best friend, not her personal slave.

A heavy sigh greeted the empty room, and she'd made her way out to the corridor, wandering in the general direction of the Great Hall, still feeling somewhat cheerful. That is, until she spotted a familiar white-blonde head moving towards her.

"Alright, Potter?" A snide voice beckoned her attention. Said girl looked up to that distressingly, frustratingly familiar face. Another chink in her armor. The day was deteriorating fast, and she hadn't even made it to breakfast. Raven was not in the mood for a fight, so her only response was a noncommittal hum, a nod, and a side of _ignore_. While she knew how he hated being ignored, she was feeling hungry, and surprisingly _not _feeling the need to bicker with her favorite rival, or smile at him, or coddle him, or do any of the things she usually did.

Apparently, Raven's lack of enthusiasm was concerning, because she saw his gray eyes cloud with something that looked suspiciously like worry. Malfoy stopped her, grabbing her wrist with a gentleness that few knew he even possessed, let alone displayed.

"Seriously, Potter. You alright? You look…" He struggled for a word that didn't sound overly insulting but didn't sound like he cared either. She pitied him.

"Tired? Irritated? Hungry? All true. Gotta jet, great seeing you." Raven favored him with a wink and then swiftly departed before he could respond. The boy had been obsessed with her since first year, though granted, it had taken three years for the obsession to go from dislike to like. They were on civil terms at the moment, and usually engaged in some light flirting that never failed to anger Ron, but at the moment she didn't feel like flirting in the slightest.

With another heavy sigh – two in one morning, damn, almost broke her record – Raven swiftly changed course to the Headmaster's office. Maybe the old man needed company. Besides, it's been a while since they'd had one of their chats, and she actually didn't feel like talking to any peers at the moment. Normally that meant she'd go and talk to Snape, who, despite all odds, was actually rather interesting company, but she'd already interacted with one Slytherin this morning and that was quite enough, student or no. McGonagall, due to her professor status, was a bit of a wet blanket and she felt like being troublesome. Not the thing to do with McGonagall, Raven had enough detentions without trying. So that left Dumbledore.

"Mike and Ike's," She muttered to the gargoyle, who jumped out of her way as she stalked past up the staircase. The old man would cheer her up, make her day better. Raven knocked sharply and entered.

Dumbledore immediately glanced up from his desk. He had appeared to be in the middle of a sentence, and she directed her blank gaze to the five students who sat before him.

_Damn._

"Apologies, Professor, I'll come back another time." Raven heaved a sigh – three now, one more to go – and arched a dark eyebrow at the offending students, who were all staring at her, a myriad of emotions passing across their faces. Strangely familiar faces, actually.

One of the students, with messy black hair and glasses, spoke.

"…_Lily?"_

Oh. Yeah. They were familiar. Too familiar. And too young. And too alive.

Dumbledore fixed a weary, sympathetic gaze on her. Raven was flabbergasted. She felt like someone had slapped her in the face.

"Miss Potter…"

"I have a _daughter?_"

_Yes,_ she thought as she blacked out, _it's been an off day._


	2. close burn: II

- chapter ll -

_Close Enough to Burn_

_

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_

Dumbledore was an old man. As such, he'd seen many things in his considerable time alive. But this was one thing that had truly shocked him – coming into his office to see teenagers who wouldn't have looked so out of place twenty years ago.

"_Your _fault, Potter, obviously-"

"Don't blame this on him, Snivellus, _you're_ the one who just _had_ to stick your greasy nose in-"

He'd nearly had heart failure.

The second thought in his mind – the first being, '_What…?_' – was how this would affect Raven.

Dumbledore did not make mistakes often, but he owned up to them when he did. Despite how hard it was under the girl's accusing glare, and her godfather's panic and fury expressed in stormy gray eyes, he knew that he'd messed up. In not telling her anything, she'd gone to the only other reliable source she could think of – Voldemort. The Sorting Hat hadn't almost placed her in Slytherin without reason…resourceful and cunning, indeed. Combined with her natural recklessness, it was a deadly mix.

He hadn't been around to tell her how dangerous it was to go gallivanting through the most powerful dark wizard in history's mind. He hadn't offered her his advice or his support, and it had nearly killed her last year.

Dumbledore did not think words could adequately describe the feeling that had torn through him as he watched Raven race in front of her only family to take the Killing Curse in his stead. And of course, that must have been a _sliver_ of what Sirius had felt, as he watched his beloved goddaughter fall to a horribly recognizable jet of green light. Dumbledore remembered his screams and tears, and he remembered Sirius screaming at _him_, to do something, anything, to save her.

As it turned out, she'd known what she was doing. She'd known that Voldemort's blood protection would protect her from anyone who tried to kill her, not just against him. Raven had known.

Naturally, that didn't stop everyone from being livid with the both of them. After she'd gotten back to his office, accompanied resolutely by her guardian, Raven had joked feebly that they could both hide there until everyone cooled down enough to not skin her alive, both for her reckless trip to the Ministry and her equally reckless dive in front of her godfather. And she'd warned that if any of her friends or family had been killed, she would not have been nearly so calm, and he'd understood.

_Never lie to me again._

Dumbledore would not be so easily forgiven next time. And he wondered what on earth to do with _them, _that didn't involve breaking his word.

The teenagers were looking at him rather fearfully, and he recognized all of them.

_James, Lily Remus, Sirius…Severus?_

"Professor," a nervous voice cut into his reverie. He wearily turned his gaze to Sirius, who looked so…_young._ His gray eyes – the eyes Dumbledore remembered being so terrified and _old_ not three months ago – were anxious, but proud. Of course, he was just a boy. Sirius didn't understand the possible ramifications of this little mishap with time, and probably didn't care.

"Shut _up, _Black. You're going to get us in so much trou-" Lily froze. So odd to see this strikingly familiar face without its usual playful grin and willfully disobedient black hair. "Sir…what on earth happened to your hand?"

"An accident, one that I cannot explain to you at the moment. You are aware of the year, correct, Miss Evans? Mr. Potter, Black, Lupin, and Snape? It's probably not what you think." Dumbledore could do stern when he wanted. The teenagers seemed to shrink.

James took a deep breath and tangled his hand furiously in that eerily familiar gesture with that achingly familiar hair. Raven was going to have a stroke.

"See, Professor, we just…" Another deep breath. Another run through the hair.

"I'm not getting any younger here, Mr. Potter." Dumbledore remembered when Raven had said that to him, and had found it delightfully ironic, coming from such a young woman.

"We had a bit of an…accident…in Potions…and something blew up…and we've gone forward in time, apparently, and…" If there'd been any doubt about whose father he was, it was gone now. His daughter had inherited the talent for spectacular explosions, though not usually demonstrated in Potions.

Dumbledore opened his mouth to speak, just as a sharp knock sounded on the door. His blood momentarily ran cold. He recognized that knock.

_Not now, of all the times to stop by-_

His door opened. She had never been one to wait for approval, for anything. The teen's heads all whipped around to the entrance, with Lily and Remus looking nervous, James and Sirius excited, and Severus remarkably confused. And Dumbledore followed the gaze to the, more reasonably, familiar face.

Lily's face, just a tad more angular. Lily's startlingly bright green eyes; Lily's eyes that were too determined and too stormy to be Lily's at all. James's perpetually untidy hair. Sirius's old impish grin. Raven took two steps in and stopped, and Dumbledore held his breath.

_Maybe she won't notice._ Not likely, in his expert opinion. If anything, he knew she had a talent for noticing things she shouldn't rather than not noticing things she should. And if she didn't notice the fact that her dead parents were standing in that very room, he'd eat his hat.

"Apologies, Professor, I'll come back another time." She looked annoyed, rather than shocked, horrified, confused, delighted, or any of the other emotions he'd expected. _Maybe she actually didn't notice…?_

His hopes were dashed when she did a double-take, along with the rest of the people in his office. James in particular just stared, shocked, as the seeming clone of the girl he fancied entered the room. Dumbledore sighed, quite heavily, unconsciously mirroring Raven's action just seconds before.

"_Lily…?" _James gasped. He noted the hair. He was confused. Well, Dumbledore might as well help him along.

"Miss Potter…" He never called her that. She'd figure out it was for their benefit.

"I have a _daughter?"_

And the old man was resigned, if mildly concerned, when Raven abruptly passed out.

It was time to call Sirius.

Oh, he was in for it now.

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James had heard that there were defining moments in life. Moments that told you what kind of person you were, or who you were going to end up with, or what your favorite color was. He had never considered that one of these moments would be showing him his future child.

And so, of course, he just had to take a moment to let it sink in. Then-

"YES! YES! I'M MARRYING LILY, I AM SO MARRYING LILY! WE'RE HAVING A KID AND SHE'S GORGEOUS LIKE LILY WITH SEXY HAIR! YEEEEAAAAHHHH!" He finished with a brief victory dance.

Before noticing that said kid had just fainted.

James guessed that this was what parental concern felt like, like someone was squeezing his stomach and simultaneously dragging an ice cube down his spine. It was not a pleasant sensation. To relieve it, the boy instantly dropped to his knees beside her – _damn,_ she looked _exactly_ like Lily, lucky girl – and just stared.

Yeah, that was where the paternal instincts abandoned him. He had no idea what to do now, so he just kind of looked at her. She'd inherited his hair, which actually made him chuckle in sympathy, and her features were thinner and slightly sharper than Lily's, but there was no mistaking it. This girl was their kid.

So lost was he in the moment of prematurely realized parenthood that he did not notice the mingled shouts behind him.

Well, not until he was forcefully shoved away from his daughter by a strangely familiar man with long, shaggy black hair. James suddenly felt the inclination to sock the mystery man in the jaw, before hearing a voice shouting an unfamiliar name.

"Raven? Raven! Wake up! Dumbledore, what the _hell_ happened? And who the hell are _they_?"

James gaped. "_Sirius?"_

"Yeah," he growled. "I think the more apt question is who are _you_?" Sirius's face was tense and hostile, an expression that was rarely, if ever, directed at him. But soon, quite soon, shock settled in, and he fell back, immediately drawing his wand and sending Dumbledore a panicked glance.

"_What_? What the hell – is that _me_? What happened to my gorgeous hair?" Young Sirius was righteously indignant. The older one had been somewhat neglecting his shaggy hair of late.

James snorted and felt his eyes drawn back onto the girl, his little Raven. She was his age, which was a tad disconcerting. Then, forcefully, he focused on the older Sirius.

He was looking…well, at the moment, rather terrified. Somewhat angry. Protective. Concerned. But there was a shadow in his eyes that hadn't been there before. Something had happened to him, something bad. James felt his heart twinge a bit.

"Professor…" His eyes never left Sirius. "Why didn't you call me?"

The old wizard buried his head in his hands. James was afraid of the answer. He'd barely been able to out the question. Sirius, the older one, was staring at him, eyes filled with pain and confusion.

Beside them, Raven stirred.

She had a bit of a headache, and a very odd dream, which for once did not involve Voldemort. She'd dreamt an untimely encounter with her teenaged parents. Odd, indeed. Maybe Dumbledore could tell her about it. Might have been Voldemort's doing anyway.

But Raven swiftly noticed that she was, in fact, not in her dormitory. Not anywhere near it. Not even on a couch. She hadn't been napping. And now her godfather was there. Terrific. She loved seeing him, for sure, but the expression on his face did not bode well.

With considerable poise and almost disdainful nonchalance, she stood and walked over to the headmaster, who was giving her a weary, slightly apologetic look.

Raven studied the students cautiously. She wished she could check the color of her eyes – after a dream that Voldemort had induced, they were almost always red, instead of the usual – and slightly disquieting – green. But the looks she received were many things, horrified not being one of them, which probably meant they were green. Unless, of course, the young people were merely by-products of some spell Voldemort had utilized.

"So." Her voice was a touch colder and flatter than usual. It wasn't on purpose…she was just staying cool so that she didn't go into shock, as Lily had seemed to. "I know who you are. All of you. My question is, what are you doing here, how did you get here, and why are you all so young? No, don't answer. Let me guess. Time travel? Created and sent by Voldemort in order to get inside Hogwarts?"

She stopped for a second. That wasn't really Voldemort's style. He was subtler than that. "A dream? Nah, scratch the last one, that's been discounted. A hallucination? I've gone insane?" A momentary pause. "Am I dead?"

Dumbledore sighed, quite heavily, almost morosely; if that were even possible for the patient old man. Raven gave him a look.

"You aren't dead. Well, if you are, so are Sirius and myself. But you aren't. You aren't insane, for the same reason you aren't dead. Your first two were the most likely." He massaged his temples, a tired gesture.

Raven rolled her eyes and bit back the snarling retort on the tip of her tongue. It wouldn't be the first time she'd lashed out at Dumbledore, but it always made her feel guilty after, especially when he didn't deserve it. And this couldn't possibly be his fault….could it?

She glowered darkly. "This wasn't you, was it? Not one of your _experiments_, right?" By experiments she meant horcruxes. He'd catch on. You didn't get as many titles as the old man without some measure of perceptive prowess.

Dumbledore sent her a dry look. "It was not. I assure you I do not meddle in matters such as…" The words froze on his lips. He was about to say 'death', but thought better of it. "Time."

She nodded, satisfied.

"Excuse me," Young Sirius growled. He eyed them irritably. "Want to clue us in on the conversation?"

James elbowed him in the ribs. Raven gave him a chilling glare.

"Do you have any idea what you've done? No one is supposed to mess with the timeline. Especially after all that's happened, you can't just waltz in decades after your time and say that it's all good, it is _not_." Since last year, it was true her temper had become more easily provoked.

_No need to be like this. He doesn't know, he's just a stupid kid._

Young Sirius stared at her in a mixture of consternation and astonishment. The last thing he'd expected was to end up in the future, meeting James's kid. And that kid – who happened to also be a very attractive girl – was rather annoyed with him, it seemed. It wasn't like they'd meant to come forward in time…it just…happened.

"Well," he said finally, "at least we know James isn't going to have an ugly kid."

There was a heavy beat of silence. Raven's lips twitched upward ever so slightly. James's hands tightened into fists. And the silence broke with her laughter, loud, uproarious laughter.

Sirius's face cracked into a roguish grin as he swiftly appraised her. Small in stature, rich in curve, with a fiercely beautiful face and messy black hair. And those eyes – Lily's eyes, but with an indomitable strength, and a darkly tempting glint. Sirius forced himself to remember that this was James's kid, and that the older version of himself would probably eat him alive if he had an inkling of the boy's thoughts at the moment.

Raven moved toward him, eyes sparkling with laughter and something else that he probably shouldn't look too closely at.

"Sirius?" She chuckled, staring at him. "You aren't so bad yourself, I guess."

His smile grew. And he was about to open his mouth for a witty, charming response, when something beat him to it.

"Excuse me," a voice growled from over by James. "That's my goddaughter you're checking out. I don't care if you are my youthful incarnation."

Sirius saw his future self and suddenly thought that the world didn't make as much sense as it had a few hours ago.

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**AN: Kay, yeah, in case you were wondering, I'm playing with the idea of a young Sirius/Raven pairing. Not sure yet though. Lily's been quiet, but she and Sev are in shock, they'll be chattier in the next chapter. And I know this is shorter than I intended, but it's only the second chapter, they'll get longer, and I wanted to post sooner than later. Luvs, tell me what you think.**


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